Tag: basically

Use Vista without activating for at least a year

March 25, 2007 by Jason

This tweak will allow you to extend the activation deadline of Vista for at least a year in just 7 easy steps. For those who are unfamiliar with the slmgr -rearm techinque, this basically allows you to run a command in command prompt that allows you extend the 30-days grace period indefinetely.

In short, this is how you can use Vista legally for at least a year without activating:

1) First, we will use the well known slmgr -rearm method. When you have 1 day remaining to activiate, Click on the Start Pearl and access command prompt by typing cmd in the Search bar. Make sure to press Ctrl + Alt + Enter to access it in Administratve mode.

2) Then type slmgr -rearm and press Enter. In about 45 seconds, you will be prompted to restart your computer. After that, you have succesfully resetted the activation timer to 30 days. This will only work 3 times, giving you 120 days, but… we’re about to change that. Read More»

Fine tune ClearType Settings

February 26, 2007 by Jason

Here are two quick reg hacks for customizing the appearance of ClearType screen font smoothing:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
FontSmoothingOrientation = 1, 2 or 3
FontSmoothingGamma = Between 1000 to 2000

FontSmoothingGamma

This setting basically adjusts the brightness. The higher you go the brighter. Read More»

Vista Upgrade Backdoor Could Save You

February 21, 2007 by Jason

I first heard about this Vista hack a few weeks ago but I decided to try it for myself before passing it on. It should be of interest to anyone thinking of buying a copy of Vista, and the good news is that you dont have to buy the full retail version. You can save yourself a few bob and Clean Install Vista using the cheaper Upgrade version. This was always possible with XP and previous versions of Windows and when asked you had to briefly load a legitimate Windows installation disc to verify that you were entitled to an upgrade but it was thought that Microsoft had omitted this facility in Vista. In fact they did, but the left a backdoor wide open, and this is how it works. For the full skinny visit the most excellent Windows Secrets website. Read More»

Improve Swapfile Performance

February 13, 2007 by Jason

If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.

  1. Go to Start then Run
  2. Type “msconfig.exe” then ok
  3. Click on the System.ini tab
  4. Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
  5. Click on new then in the blank box type”ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″
  6. Click OK
  7. Restart PC

Make Your Own FREE Video Screensavers

February 02, 2007 by Jason

Want to jazz up your desktop?  Well there are two great apps that allow you to make your own free video screensavers.
The first one is ‘My Video Screen Saver‘ which supports the following features:

. Plays AVI, MPEG, WMV video files as a screen saver
. Displays videos randomly
. Allows the volume of each video to be adjusted
. Allows videos to be previewed from the settings window
. Adjust videos to 100%, 150% or 200% for each file
. Runs on all Windows operating systems
Read More»

Speed It Up a Notch

February 01, 2007 by Jason

One easy, cool preference you might want to tweak deals with speed. By default, Firefox runs fast enough—it’s like driving at the speed limit. But if you want to push your browsing experience, modify a few settings in about:config. Note that these edits are for broadband connections only; if you’re still dialing up, you’re stuck with whatever speed you’ve got.
Read More»